Marlins Swim Team

Welcome to CT Athletic Program

CT Athletic Program and the Marlins Swim Team carry on a 59-year Tucson tradition. Catalina Terrace was founded in 1961 as a pool, tennis, and recreation facility by the surrounding neighborhoods. Catalina Terrace is located inside the southwest corner of Tucson Boulevard & Fort Lowell Road, at 2440 E Hedrick. More location info & map here.

We have had a competitive summer swim team continuously for 59 years. Our team has over 140 swimmers ages 4-18 that swim 5 days a week from April through July and compete in the SAAA swimming organization; we have been league champions 4 of our last 6 years. Most of our swimmers stay with the team through high school. The overall growth of our kids and the lifelong friendships they make at CT are as important to our program as developing their swimming ability. In 2009 we formed CT Athletic Program, a 501c3 with a Youth Athletics focus, to help raise funds to renovate our pool, tennis courts, and associated facility. Pool renovation fundraising was fulfilled in the fall of 2016, and after 57 years our pool underwent a total renovation. In April 2017 we proudly cut the ribbon on a new pool; we’re proud to say that construction is complete, the pool is finished and looks beautiful!

Summer Swim 2019 Draws to a Close Labor Day Weekend

Though the Autumn of our Swim Season approaches, there’s still plenty of swim days left in the Catalina Terrace Pool. Crowded summer decks may have past, but boundless quite mornings & afternoons await meditative swims.
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Endless warm sunny days are in our still in Tucson’s fall future. Enjoy our last day of guarded evening hours on Labor Day with a picnic dinner, grill or carry-out (if we aren’t rained out with monsoon showers!). The pool returns to unguarded, daylight-only hours after this, until next summer. But annual members can still enjoy the facility all year-round—Tennis, swim & picnics all year long. Interested in a membership? Explore our website here under “Facility Members” above in the menu!

Swim-A-Thon!

CT Athletic Program and the Marlins Swim Team Sixth Annual Swim-a-Thon took place Saturday Morning, June 1, with a fine crowd of enthusiastic swimmers. Beautiful warm and sunny weather, it was milder than Swim-a-Thons past, but clear and swimmable all morning long. Families & friends caught up, donuts & bagels broken over coffee, sun tea and eegee’s! See more info at our Swim-A-Thon page!

Sampling from our sponsors forthe 6th Annual Swim-a-Thon!

The CT Marlins 2019 Swim-A-Thon!

Swim Buddies!

The season is winding down! Keep your buddy in the loop & maintain those swim buddy relationships! Update your swim scrap book! (You do keep a swim scrap book, right?) Write your buddy a letter of encouragement, a poster for a swim meet, a card for invitational or championships! Send your buddy an Instagram or Tweet! Small crafts or silly simple toys are great buddy treats. Keep it cheap, but keep it meaningful—tell your swim buddy why they make the best Marlin buddy ever! Teach each other how to be an ever GREATER SWIM BUDDY all summer!!

Bill the Marlin Loves his Shirts! You can Too!It’s what the sartorial Marlin wears this season.

5th Annual Groundhog Day Plunge!

2 February 2019—the FIFTH Annual Groundhog Day Plunge! >~/•Such a warm afternoon with sunny skies breaking through occasional clouds, and warmer friendships rekindled poolside. Afternoon temps hit 71˚, and the water climbed to a tepid 58˚—just enough to get the blood flowing! Friends joined hands, lept into the drink, and quickly scampered out again—only to plunge right back in! In all, 10 grateful swimmers (eight kids and two adults) braved our (not quite so) ice-bound waters, and did so repeatedly, without a single complaint, in the waning rays of the sunset. Some dropped by just to drop in, then off to their evening; others came, stayed, grilled & talk through the night, Mars & Orion lazily drifting past overhead. Not a threat of rain despite the forecast—it held off till Sunday! Happy conversation met with our fired up grill—hot dogs, hamburgers, veggies & sirloin all roasted to perfection, followed by cookies & fruit tarts. Such welcome friends! Kids touched-base & caught-up across schools, months & valley distance, connected only by their friendship born of the Marlins Swim Team.

Marlin Swimmers lunge from the deck plunging into the numbing waters of Catalina Terrace Pool!

CT Community Outreach

CT Athletic Program provides swim team scholarships for kids with economic need in our community. We have evolved into a non-profit that supports underprivileged kids and opens our facility to organizations such as Tucson Association for Autism and Special Olympics. This summer we are providing use of our facility to kids from TMM Family Services, Casa de los Niños, Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson, and Primavera Foundation – Greyhound Family Shelter. To support our swim team and facility maintenance, we sell memberships to the local community for use of the pool, tennis courts, and grounds, continuing the 57-year tradition of Catalina Terrace being a gathering place for kids and families in central Tucson.

Thank you Tucson Conquistadors!

We are super-thankful to the Tucson Conquistadors for their support in the past year! At the 2017 New Year’s they presented our board & families with their 2015 & 2016 check for funding support of our pool renovation—at the five-foot marker of the pool floor! Standing around the check Tucson Conquistadors Bill Hussey and daughter Kelsey, Tim Healy, and Matt Kaiser intermingle with the CTAP families for a once-in-55-year photo (we’re hoping it’s at least another 55 years before the bottom of this pool is dry again!).

—CTAP Fundraising Update—

Your CT Athletic Program Board of Directors is forever humbled by the Catalina Terrace Community for all their hard work, dedication, fund raising through direct contributions, Swim-A-Thon and soliciting sponsorships! Construction on the new pool started November 30 2016, and completed just before practice began in early April 2017. The pool draining/groundbreaking celebration in late November 2016 was met with a little chilly air, but nothing could cool the spirits & warm enthusiasm for jumping in and raising a golden shovel. The skies were beautiful, the water mild, and the faces all cheery. The CT Community really stepped up to the block to make this happen, and your board is deeply, deeply honored by your response.

November 2016: Old pool full of happy community! Today: New pool full of water!

Additionally, the final push could not have happened with out major commitments from major, major donors: some anonymous, others alumni, and still others stalwart Tucson community supporters. We strive to acknowledge all these major supporters and donors as this process evolves. Until then, thank you so much to our current and previous swimmers & alumni, and all friends of youth athletics and the Tucson sports scene! Thank you!

The 2019 Marlins Swim Season, on CTAPMarlins.org…

Start to Swim Practice & other known dates

Our first swim practice is April 8, 2019, Monday afternoon. Practice will run Monday through Thursday afternoons, with a Saturday morning practice to allow for a free Friday afternoon break. CTAP’s MANDATORY work party is Saturday morning, April 6, from seven-to-noon, requiring only a two-hour commitment from each family. Key exchange for facility members is May 4, and we’re looking to have a potluck/movie night on May 12. Morning swims will begin after after Memorial Day May 27, on Tuesday the 28th in the morning.

Our 2019 Marlins Practice schedule will have times for all swimmers’ age groups as it develops. Currently the 2018 schedule is there for comparison; 2019 will be very similar. See you ’round the pool!

Though it’s only the start of February, there’s some blooming action going on in the midst of our dry, warm “winter”.

Other watery worlds Bill the Marlin Swims in…

Find @BilltheMarlin on Twitter, Instagram, or at Facebook—See the links above-right!

Did you know the Catalina Terrace Marlins has an Instagram account!? Here it is! We’re also at Twitter and Facebook! Bill the Marlin’s a real social fish, so look for the social media buttons on the upper-right of every page. If you’re not on our roster for this summer 2018, but still desire to get involved with SAAA Summer Swim at the Catalina Terrace Marlins, visit our contact page and send us a note about swimming summer 2019!

Swim? Tennis?

The pool is guarded the warm summer months of Memorial Day Weekend to Labor Day Weekend, but year ’round the facility is open for swimming and tennis for Catalina Terrace Members. Off-season it is typically quiet and peaceful and the water’s a might bit chilly, but the facility is open for CTAP Member use during all daylight hours, and closed after dark. Want to maximize your member benefits—even when it’s cool out? Light a barbecue, meet another family for dinner, schedule a family or office party for the holidays, enjoy a game of tennis under our massive Tucson Spring Sunlight—or even set up a mini-tennis tournament! Really wanna try swimming in the cold!? The cost of a guard for parties is extra—see here!

Capital Campaign Fundraising

We’ve completed our pool renovation funding drive and rebuilt the pool in 2017! In case you’ve missed it, 2016 was the last winter photo of our then-55-year-old pool bottom! Look to our Renovations page for some visuals (apologies for the terrible layout). We still have many capital improvement projects in the pipeline to bring this facility up to 21st Century standards, so if you’d still like make an additional donation, use the PayPal button at right, and/or visit our Capital Campaign page!

About the CT Athletic Program

The Catalina Terrace “Marlins” Swim Team is one of the few “neighborhood” swim teams remaining in central Tucson. The swim team is a part of the CT Athletic Program, located at 2440 East Hedrick, one block south of Ft. Lowell; just west of Tucson Blvd. The community pool and swim team were established in 1961. Our swim team has 145 swimmers, 4 paid coaches, and 100 swim team families. The team is open to any youth with swimming ability, age 4 through high-school seniors. We have swimmers from all over Tucson and surrounding areas. The Marlins Swim Team sports a paid coaching staff and the facility supports paid lifeguards through the summer. Otherwise, the entire organization is volunteer driven, with an all-volunteer board of directors overseeing operations. The 2018 swim season runs from mid-April until the city-wide championships in mid-July. We are in the Cañada del Oro league of the Southern Arizona Aquatics Association, swimming against the Oro Valley Flying Fish, Highland Vista, and Orcas Swim Teams, among others. This year we will host six home swim meets during May, June, and July, each against a different team from around Tucson, and will attend 3 away meets with other Tucson teams. Attendance at home meets is typically more than 300 people with swimmers and parents from both teams. CT Athletic Program is a non-profit 501c3 corporation with tax-exempt status. Our mission is to promote youth athletics.